---
title: The room was quiet a moment, and then came the question, “How does y… — Gleanings from Chinese folklore · tree and pragmatics
description: The room was quiet a moment, and then came the question, “How does your mother live?” Who acts: room, mother. A sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, A Story of Old China, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Gleanings from Chinese folklore, A Story of Old China, part 3, sentence 33

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The room was quiet a moment, and then came the question, “How does your mother live?”

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**Who acts:** room, mother · **What happens:** be, come, live · **To what, where:** question · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, A Story of Old China, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (room, mother), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg75089:19:33
# text = The room was quiet a moment, and then came the question, “How does your mother live?”
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	room	room	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	quiet	quiet	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	10	advmod	_	_
10	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	advcl	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	question	question	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
14	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	19	advmod	_	_
16	does	do	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
17	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
19	live	live	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the room |  |  |  | moment | quiet *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **come** | past | your mother *not said here* | the question |  |  | then |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location question=Theme |
| 3 | **live** *in a quote* | present · do-support | your mother |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, Project Gutenberg book 75089 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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